Day 22: Tourism in Memphis. Graceland. The only place to start. That's not me in the photo. Not yet anyway.


We got on the first tour of the day at 9am--and we paid plenty for the honor of being VIPs. This meant we got to see stuff without big crowds around.
Some parts of the house were fairly normal for 1977, like the kitchen.


But mostly the place was a bit tacky. Here's the famous Jungle Room--which I had never heard of before. And I thought I was an Elvis fan.
So much for that. In case you are wondering, the death toilet is not on the tour.


The trophy building included a ton of gold records. Here's the one for Hound Dog.


The King's racquetball court has been converted into another exhibit hall--featuring these classic sequined jumpsuits.


"It really puts perspective on things, though. Doesn't it?"


The people who didn't pay double have to wait in line like common peasants for entry to the mansion.


Our VIP tickets also got us into the Elvis archives. I was impressed at the number of spelling errors on this sign.


And we got to see the King's car collection--which includes this Rolls.


Linda set off the fan detector while going through security to see Elvis' airplanes. Security came and
forced her to continue on to the exhibit.


He named his big plane after his daughter. Lisa Marie comes out to the house several times a year and eats dinner in Graceland's dining room.
Not in front of the tour groups--she waits till after hours.


After Graceland we drove back into downtown Memphis to see the National Civil Rights Museum. We got cheap tickets from a family reunion
trip that had some extras. So we joined the Beaufort family for a little while--though we didn't really fit in.
The museum includes the Lorraine Hotel, where MLK was assassinated in 1968.


The museum includes exhibits where you can be scorned for sitting down at a lunch counter and be threatened with arrest for not
sitting in the back of the bus.


Then we walked over to the Gibson factory to take the tour. They don't allow photos inside, probably because they don't want anyone to know that
they use binder clips to hold the guitar bodies together until the glue dries.


We ended up at BB King's club for dinner and music. We had the worst seats in the house, so we didn't stay for the whole set, though
the band was quite good.